The life of Colonel Thomas Blood
Rather more than just 'the man who tried to steal the Crown Jewels'
The life of Colonel Thomas Blood, a man who, in dedicating his life to the return of his fortunes, was destined to be remembered as England's most audacious thief.
Not much is known for certain about Thomas Blood’s early life. Born in County Clare in 1618 of an ironsmith father, Blood spent his youth in England. At 30 he signed up with Cromwell’s troops, then poised to invade Ireland. Cromwell’s campaign of subjugation quickly became a ‘land grab’ of gigantic proportions, and Blood ended his short military career as landlord of sizeable estates confiscated from their displaced owners. From then on he insisted on being referred to as Colonel Blood (a dubious rank), but genuine or fake, this title was the one destined to be recorded in history’s roll of infamy.
Restoration spelt disaster for this newly made man, especially the appointment of the old anti-Cromwellian general James Butler, Lord Ormond, as Irish Lord Lieutenant, and Ormond wasted no time in exacting revenge on those who had benefited from his past enemy’s beneficence. Blood lost almost all of his lands, and it was this that was to colour the rest of the colonel’s activities until he died.
A life of crime
Blood resolved to kidnap Lord Ormond. His scheme, rather naively, hinged upon an armed break-in of Dublin Castle, Ormond’s headquarters, in a desperate attempt to have his property restored. The conspirators never made it past the front gate however and Blood, with the army in hot pursuit, barely escaped with his life. He fled abroad disguised as a Quaker, finally making it back to England, where after some years he again embarked upon another daring escapade. This time it was the liberation of an old friend, Captain Mason, on his way to stand trial in York. Blood and some associates stormed the armed retinue escorting Mason. Several troopers were killed, Blood himself was injured, but their goal was achieved. Again Blood was on the run, and this time the price on his head had been raised to £500, a fantastic sum by the standards of the day.
Most men would have called it a day, but Blood was made of sterner (or stupider) stuff. Amazingly, only three years later, Blood again resolved to kidnap and hang his old nemesis, Lord Ormond, then in England on a visit. He managed a little better this time, actually succeeding in capturing the old man, but again his audacity proved his undoing. Blood had vowed to hang Ormond at Tyburn, and it was this insistence on poetic justice that allowed the crown forces time to mount a rescue attempt. Ormond was released, but Blood, yet again, incredibly avoided arrest.
On the run once more, and by now the most infamous enemy of the state at large, Blood still refused to abort his career of crime. In fact he resolved upon his most famous plan, and the one for which he will always be remembered – the theft of the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. The plot, as every schoolchild knows, failed and Blood was arrested. Now a prisoner in the Tower he had planned to raid, he amazingly insisted on speaking only with the king himself, and even more amazingly his wish was granted.
The final incredible twist
No one knows what was said when they met, but the outcome was as fantastic as the chequered lives of the two conversationalists. Charles, incredibly, ordered Blood’s release, compensation for his lost Irish estates, and even a pension to death from the state. Blood lived out the last decade of his life a rich man again, but his reputation had been assured. In fact such was his renown for ‘cheating the grim reaper’ that his body was exhumed by the authorities some weeks after his death in 1680 ‘just to be sure’!
